Game and game apparatus.



M. MARIS.

GAME AND GAME APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 3. 1915.

LlGBS. Patented Dec. 28, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.,

[05 jmp/704 lo@ Nl. MARIS.

GAME AND GAME APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED IIAY 3. I9I5.

Patented Dec. 28, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

UTE STATE@ PAINT FFIIE@ MAXIMILIEN MARIS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

GAME AND GAME APPARATUS.

Application filed May 3, 1915.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, MAXIMILIEN MARIS, acitizen of the United States of America, and resident of Chicago, Cookcounty, Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement inGames and Game Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in games and apparatus therefor andhas more particular reference to improvements in games and apparatus forexemplifying battles or conflicts between opposing forces.

One of the objects of my invention is to provide an improved game ofthis character which will be entertaining and instructive andinexpensive to manufacture.

Other objects of my invention will appear hereinafter.

My invention consists in the feature of novelty exemplified in theconstruction, combination and arrangement of the parts hereinafterdescribed, shown in the accompanying drawings, and more particularly setforth in the appended claims.

Referring to the accompanying drawings r-Figure 1 is a plan view of thecomplete board, involving the parts or divisions belonging to eachplayer in playing position, and representing the field of action onwhich the battle takes place. Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view onthe line 2 2 of Fig. 1. Figs. 3 and 3a are enlarged perspective views ofone of the sections illustrating the manner of marking both sides torepresent two different kinds of ground for one section; Figs. i and 4aare similar perspectives showing both faces of another section toillustrate two other kinds of ground for the section; Figs. 5 to 5e,inclusive, are pairs of perspective views of the playing pieces of voneof the players, each perspective of the pair illustrating the marking onthree of the faces opposite the three faces of the other perspective inthe pair; Fig. 5 being a representation of the infantry playing pieces;Fig. 5a, of .the navy playing pieces; Fig. 5b, cavalry pieces; Fig. 5c,of the light artillery pieces; Fig. 5d, of the engineer pieces; and Fig.5e, of the siege artillery pieces; Fig. 5f is a perspective view of oneof the bridge pieces of one of the players; Figs.. 6 to 6e, inclusive,are pairs of perspective views of the playing pieces of the otherplayer, these being duplicates of the playing pieces shown in Figs. 5 to5e eX- cept that they have different face coloring Specification ofLetters Patent.

Patented Dec. 28, 1915. Serial No. 25,407. i

to indlcate that they belong to said other player, and; Fig. Gf is abridge piece similar to 5f except that it is colored or marked toindicate that it belongs to said other player.

rlhe game which I have illustrated in the d rawings and which embodiesmy inventlon involves a board or playing surface representing the fieldof action over or on which various playing pieces or objects,representative of several divisions of army and navy, are moved incertain ways according to the plan of operation of the game. The game ispreferably (but not necessarily) played by two persons, and when playedby two persons each may regard himself as general-in-chief of his ownarmy.

In accordance with my invention, the game is played upon a iield ofaction which may be composed jointly by the players. For this reason thefield of action is made up of a plurality of interchangeable sections orblocks assembled together in any particular' arrangement or order whichthe player regards best for the defense of his own stronghold, and thedisposition of his men, or playing pieces, for that defense and for theattack of the enemy. rlfhese blocks or sections 10 as shown in Figs. l,2 and 3 are flat on two sides and may be given any configuration foundbest adapted for the purpose. I prefer that they be made hexagonal andhalf hexagonal in shape so that they will be convenientlyinterchangeable and so that when assembled together they will form acomplete, unbroken surface over which the playing pieces may be moved;also because, for the sake of measuring the speed of the playing pieces,all points will be at an equal distance from each other. In order toretain the sections in position after they have been assembled, Iprovide a suitable holder which in the present construction, consists ofa flat board or support ll having a raised flange 12 around three of itssides, to prevent the group of sections or blocks from becomingdisplaced. Each player has one of these boards for holding the sectionsl0, but this is merely a matter of convenience as in handling thesections each player may compose his ground or field of action unseen byhis adversary and afterward the players may then place their divisionsor boards together, as shown in Fig. l to form the complete field ofaction ready for operation.

In the present arrangement each playeris board or field of action ismade up preferably of forty-one hexagonal sections and eight halfhexagonal sections. These sections are intended to represent diiferentcharacters or kinds of ground such as swamps7 prairies, mountains,rivers, forests and the like, which are likely to be found under actualconditions, and I therefore mark the blocks or sections in such a mannerthat these different kinds of ground can be distinguished. rfhis can bedone by actually making pictures of the different kinds of ground on theblocks which, when assembled together, will produce a `landscape thatcan be varied infinitely; or, if desired, an arbitrary color scheme maybe used on the blocks to distinguish the different kinds of ground; oragain, if desired, any suitable distinctive marking may be employed. Inthe particular structure shown in the drawings, I divide up the groundfor each player and identify or distinguish its parts as follows:

8 lakes-referred to by reference character 101L and colored dark blue.

12 plains or prairies-referred to by reference character 10b and coloredgreen.

12 mountains-referred to by reference character 10c and colored brown.

12 forests-referred to by reference character 101 and colored dottedgreen on white.

10 swamps-referred to by reference character 10e and colored green withblue crosses.

14C sections on which appear a river-the rivers being referred to by10EV and colored with a blue band adjacent their edges.

12 sections on which appear trenchesreferred to by 10g colored with abrown band extending across the sections.

The division of the ground and identification of the different kindsthereof are, of course, arbitrary and may be varied as desired.

The above division of ground for each players field of action isobtained by marking the hexagonal and half hexagonal sections 10 on bothsides so as to offer a greater choice of ground, and the following tableshows a satisfactory disposition of the different kinds of 0round foreach player:

Heagomal sections.

2 sections with a lake on one side and a prairie on the other.

2 sections with a lake on one side and a mountain on the other.

2 sections with a lake on one side and a forest on the other.

2 sections with a lake on one side and a swamp on the other.

2 sections with a prairie on one side and a mountain on the other.

2 sections with a prairie on one side and a forest on the other.

2 sections with a prairie on one side and a swamp on the other.

2 sections with a mountain on one side and a forest on theother.

2 sections with a mountain on one side and a swamp on the other.

2 sections with a forest on one side and a swamp on the other.

2 sections with prairie and river on one side and a prairie withoutriver on other.

2 sections with mountain and river on one side and a mountain withoutriver on other.

sections with forest and river on oneY side and a forest without riveron other.

sections with swamp and river on one side and a swamp without a river onthe other.

2 sections with prairie7 river and trenches on one side and prairie withriver, but without trenches on the other.

sections with mountain, river and trenches on one side and mountain withriver, but withoutl trenches on the other.

2 sections with forest, river and trenches on one side and forest withriver, but without trenches on the other.

2 sections with prairie and trenches on one side and prairie withouttrenches on the other.

2 sections with mountain and trenches on one side and mountain withouttrenches on the other.

2 sections with forest and trenches on one side and forest vwithouttrenches on the other.

l section with red star on one side and blank on the other; This blockrepresents the capital, the capture of which is the object of the game.

ico

105 Half hexagonal sections.

1 half section with lake on one side "and prairie on the other.

1 half section with lake on mountain on the other.

1 half section with lake on forest on the other.

1 half section with lake on swamp on the other.

1 half section with prairie on one side and mountain on the other.

1 half section with prairie on one side and forest on the other.

1 half section with swamp on one side and mountain on the other.

1 half section with swamp on one side and forest on the other.

By this coloring or marking the sections on both sides a greater andpractically infinite choice of ground is offered from which the playersmay compose their fields and, furthermore, during the progress of thegame, those sections which have trenches may be taken from anywhere andplaced as desired providing the section replacing theV one side and oneside and one side and trench section, shows the same kind of ground, theidea being to permit trenches to be placed anywhere without altering thecharacter of the field of action as originally composed before the gamebegins. It is desirable, when composing the field, to place the trenchesso that they do not show, and, in order that the player may know wherehis trenches are, I mark the reverse side of the section having trencheswith a couple of fine lines 10h. Fig. l illustrates the manner in whichboth sides of several sections show the trenches on one side and therecognition lines l0h on the other side. The trenches may be positionedto face the enemy in any direction. However, those sections which showboth trenches and rivers must be placed in such manner as not to disturbthe course of the river, although trenches may be placed anywhere alonga river.

'In addition to the parts and arrangements making up the 'field ofaction upon which the game is played, each player is provided with anumber-preferably fiveofpiece 15 representing bridges, these being ofany shape and marking desired, but preferably like that shown in Figs.5f and Gf for convenience. These bridge pieces are used to enable theplaying pieces to cross rivers, and should be placed in position whenthe field of action is originally composed, although the rules forplaying the game may, if desired, providefor the engineers buildingbridges during the progress of the game. It might be noted here thatwhere two sections with rivers are placed side by side they produce ariver twice as wide and two bridges are required to cross, and thepoints (to be described) midway of the width of the river becomeislands. Means should be provided which mark out and define thedirections, distance and speed at which the playing pieces may move onthe field of action so that the game will require study and skill inplaying. Any suitable means may be used for this purpose, and, as in thepresent structure, I prefer definite markings which define the moves. Inthis arrangement, these markings consist of small spots 16 preferablyblack in color and located in the centers of the sections and at all ofthe corners thereof. In Figs. 1 and 8, these spots are shown hexagonalin shape. At the corners each section has about a third of a spot which,when the field is composed, registers with two other like thirds on theadjoining corners of two other sections, and thus these three-thirdscomplete one spot. Around the outer edges of the field of action, thespots may be completed by marking the balance of the spots on the flangel2 of the board (see Fig. l).

The playing pieces in the present arrangement are preferably in the formof cubes and each player is provided with a set of these cubes. All ofthe cubes of each player are colored in two distinct colors; forinstance, all of the pieces of one player may be colored blue and gold,while those of the other player may be colored silver and red. rlhecubes, of course, have six faces, and in accordance with my invention,as shown in Figs. 5 to 5e, three adjacent faces of each cube for oneplayer are given one color, for instance blue, and the three oppositefaces given another color-for in stance, gold. On the other hand, asshown in Figs. 6 to 6e, three adjacent faces of each cube for the otherplayer is given one color-for instance, redwhile the other three facesare colored silver. The purpose in distinguishing three faces of eachcube or piece from the other three faces by color or otherwise is toenable the player to indi cate to himself and to his adversary that thepiece has been moved, by turning up the opposite color after the piecehas been moved. In addition to the distinct colorings or other markings,the cubes or pieces are marked to represent the different character offighting forces of an army and navy, such as infantry, cavalry, lightartillery, etc. Any suitable marking. such as pictures of horses forcavalry, soldiers for infantry, etc., may be used. In the presentarrangement, I have simply used letters for this purpose, and themarkings of the cubes is disposed as follows:

big guns-siege artillery.

In accordance with my invention, each cube or playing piece is giventhese marks in such manner that the cubes will have variations infighting strength; for instance, one face of the cube, as shown inFig.5, will have three Ss indicating three soldiers, another face will havetwo Ss meaning two soldiers, and a third face will have one S indicatingone soldier, this idea being carried out in all of the cubes. Thus, ifthe side or face of the cube having three Ss or three Bs is facing up,it means that the piece is three soldiers strong, or three boats strong,as the case may be. These pieces can thus be made to lose their strengthby being fired upon, and this loss of effective strength is indicated byturning up the face showing reduced strength, as will hereinafterappear. Since, as above intimated, each piece must be turned to exposeits opposite color after it has been moved, I provide each cube with aduplicate set of character markings, so that when it is turned toindicate that it has been moved, its effective strength will not bealtered. For instance, on the soldier piece the blue faces will haveone, two and three Ss respectively, rand the corresponding opposite goldfaces will also have one, two and three Ss respectively, as shown inFig. that is to say, the face with a single S on a blue back ground willbe duplicated on the opposite face as a single S on a gold back ground,and so on. Thus, if a piece having a single S exposed is moved and thenturned, the corresponding opposite face may be exposed showing a singleS on a different colored background.

With reference now'to theV distances, directions and values of the moveswhich the various pieces may make, I refer to these moves as points andthe points are computed as being from one of the spots 16 to anyadjacent spot 16, there being, for instance, two points between thecenter spot of one section and the center spot of an adjoining section.

The soldier piece may move four points or less on prairie or forest andtwo points or less on swamp or mountain. Therefore, if such a piece hasmoved two points on a prairie and desires to enter a swamp or climb amountain, it can move to the next point only, because it has to counttwo to reach the next point in that kind of ground. If it has only onepoint left to count, it cannot enter those grounds. The big gun piecemoves at the same rate as that of the soldier on prairie, forest or baseof mountains, but to reach the middle of a block which represents thesummit of a. mountain, it can only move one point. It cannot occupy anypoint on the inside of a swamp. The field gun moves at the rate of fivepoints or less on prairie and forest and two points or lesson swamps andmountains. The engineer pice moves at the same rate of speed as the eldgun. The horse piece moves at the rate of six points or less on prairieor forest and two points or less on swamp and the base of the mountains,the top of which it cannot occupy. The boat piece may occupy any pointon the rivers or lakes or the middle of the latter and moves at the rateof five points or less on lakes and two points or less on rivers. As ameans of understanding clearly the rates of speeds of the differentpieces under different conditions, I have arranged the following table.

Rates of spccdfor each piecefor a more.

After having composed these grounds or `pieces of a player all show thesame color and the face with three figures which indicates a full.contingent of men. lVhen the first player hasreached the limit of hiscount for each piece, or as far as he wants to go, he turns his piecepresenting the face Iopposite which shows also three figures but with adifferent colored background, as above explained. This indicates thatthat piece has been played and it cannot be moved again during thatmove. He thus successively moves all of hismen. He does not need todisplace his men if he doesnot choose to do so, but he must turn them soas to show that he did not forget any. Then it will `be the turn of theVsecond played to do likewise.

The soldier piece may attack in two ways; it may lire on another soldierpiece, on an engineer piece, or a horse piece at a distance of twopoints or less and disable one-thirdV of that piece if that piece is notprotected. As the limit of speed -of a soldier piece isfour points, itmay move two points and fire, that constituting a move, of if it is twopoints from the piece attacked, it may fire and, after firing, moves twopoints inany direction, that constitutes a move. The player firing hispiece announces aloud what he has done and his adversary then turns -thepiece which has been red upon, so as to show only two figures, if itshowed three before or one figure if it showed two before or take it offof the board if it showed only one figure.

A piece is protected from fire when it is at a point in the middle of aforest or if both pieces, being on the edge of a forest, is two or threepoints distant from the alttacking piece. It is also protected at thebase of a mountain when two or three points from the attacking piece,provided that the attacking .piece is also at the base of the mountain.It is not protected when the attacking piece is in the middle of theblock which is the top of the mountain, vneither is the piece on the topof the mountain protected from theone at the base.

The soldier piece may also attack an enemy piece by being placed on topof it.

It may attack thus at the Vend of its speed limit of fo-ur points or ata lesser distance. This is supposed to be a hand to hand fight and theattacking piece wins if numerically as strong or stronger than theattacked piece, provided the latter does not receive any help before itis time for the attacking piece to be moved again. -If it has notreceived any help, the victorious player removes the conquered piecefrom the -board and he may move his piece again to the limit of itsspeed. If help comes, the piece coming to reinforce the piece attackedis placed side by side of the pieces fighting, in which case the pieceon top of the first one cannot be moved until the action is decided.Another piece may come to the help of the second piece and be placed ontop of the one that came to help the first one, and so on. `When no morepieces are at hand to reinforce either side, the figures participatingin the iight are to be counted and, if numerically as strong or strongerthe side that brought the last piece wins. The winning player removesfrom the board all of the pieces of his adversary and may move hispieces to the limit of their speed in any direction. The pieces whichthe soldier piece may thus attack are: another soldier piece, anengineer piece, a horse piece, or a big field gun. The soldier piece,instead of changing place or ring, may entrench. This is done by turningthe section showing a trench and the same kind of ground upon which itstands, if that section does not show a river the trench may be placedin any direction against the enemy. If it shows@ a river, the sectionmust be placed so as not to disturb the course of the4 river. Severalsections may be placed so as to show a continuous trench and a man maybe put at each point behind that trench. The men behind the trenches areprotected from the re of the soldier piece and from that of the iieldgun,

Vexcept when the iield gun is at the top of a mountain, and can bereached only by a direct assault in a hand to hand fight and that onlyby one or several soldier pieces. The piece or pieces attacking menbehind a trench will lose one-third `of their effective strength foreach piece ring on them from behind the trench before they can reachthem. Thus, if there is only one piece behind the trench,4it can disableonly onethird of a piece, if there are two pieces,

and they choose to concentrate their re on that piece they will disabletwo-thirds of that piece.

The horse piece may charge and attack at the end of its speed limit ofsiXpoints, or at ay lesser dista-nce, by being placed on the top of theenemys piece. As to the soldier piece, it wins if numerically as strongor stronger than the piece attacked, provided the latter is notreinforced during the neXt move of his adversary. The pieces that thehorse piece may thus attack are: the soldier piece (when not in atrench), another Lhorse piece, the engineer pier-.a3 @ha big or siegegun.

The light or field gun may hit its mark at a distance of four points. Asits speed is five points, it may move one point and fire or, if it isfour points or less from the piece upon which it fires, it may fire and,after firing, move one point in any direction. This constitutes a moveand the piece must be turned to show that it has been played. The pieceupon which. it has fired is disabled one-third and, upon the playerdeclaring aloud what he has done, his adversary will turn the piecefired upon to show a figure one-third less than it Y showed before. Themen that the field gun may thus disable are the soldier piece, theengineer piece or the horse piece. The field gun may be attacked andcaptured only by the soldier piece and the horse piece in the mannerdescribed above. It may be hit and destroyed by the big gun or the boatpiece as will be stated later on. If the soldier piece or the horsepiece charge in a straight line longer than two points on a field gun,it will be disabled one-third of their effective strength beforereaching that piece. They will, however, be strong enough to capture it,unless attacked in turn by an enemys piece in the neXt move.

The siege gun can hit its mark at a distance of siX points or less andits firing constitutes a move. It is used to destroy the field gun, thebig gun, the boat piece and to reduce the permanent guns of the capital.Each shot of that gun disables one-third of the piece it hits. Theplayer, when using this piece, will announce aloud what he has beenshooting at and his adversary will then turn his piece so as to show afigure one-third less than it showed before. The big gun may fire overmaterial obstacles to the limit of its range when on top of a mountain,but a piece in the middle of a forest or immediately behind a mountainis protected. As stated above, it can be captured by a soldier piece ora horse piece; it can also be hit by another big gun and be one-thirddisabled; in that case it will have to fire twice to pro duce the sameeffect as a full battery, and, if twosthirds disabled, it will have tofire three times to produce the same result.

The engineer piece is used, not to iight, but to build bridges whenneeded. It may also prepare trenches to be occupied by the soldierpiece. Tf it is on the ground where the trench is to be built it may doso in one move if not on the ground it requires another move to reachit. Any of the men, except the boat piece, may blow up a bridge afterretreating without losing any of their speed limit. The enemy must havean englneer piece to build one in order to cross the river at that pointor it may build one at another point. In order to do this, the engineerpiece must first reach the point where the bridge to be built and thatconsti tutes a move. Then it must build the bridge and that constitutesanother move. If, during the building of the bridge or a trench it isattacked and disabled one-third, it will take two moves to build it and,if disabled two-thirds it will take three moves to produce the sameresult.

The boat piece is armed with big guns as powerful as the siege gun andmay be used for the same purpose as the siege gun. It is also used totransport any of the other pieces on the lake. It can carry only onepiece at a time, the piece carried being placed on the top of it. Vhenthe boat piece has reached the limit of its speed, both pieces must beturned to show they have been played. If attacked while in transit, itsspeed is reduced one point for each time it is hit and the power of itsguns is disabled one-third, so that it takes two shots to produce thesame result; the piece carried is also disabled one-third. At last, ifhit three times while one point or more distant from shore, it is sunkand the piece that it carried is also lost. If at a point on shore theboat piece is destroyed, the piece it carried may .land and move onepoint from the place where it landed.

The capital is the objective of the party adverse, the lplace which hemust captureto win the game. It is fitted with permanent field lguns andbig guns, and, if manned5 by a soldier piece, a horse piece oranengineer piece, the guns may be used as if there were regularAgunners. Only two piecesmay occupy that point at a time, `one for theeld guns and one for the big guns, and they are subject to the same riskas tlhe -other pieces, that is if hit by a shot of a big gun they aredisabled one-'third and their power is lessened, but the men may bereplaced if there are men at hand as the guns are plentiful. A. pieceshowing two figures may unite with a piece showing one figure and becomea complete piece with full power.

To win the game the adversary player lmust occupy the capitalv withatleast one of his pieces, withoutrbeing attacked .1n *thel nex't'move.That piece need not be a'ffthree figure piece, even a one figurepieoemay winthe game, provided it remains in possession for a full move.The place can be reached only through the point at -the end ofthe longred line and only al soldier, a horse or an engineer piece may try toreach it.

lVhat I claim as my invention is:

1. In a game of theclass described, a playing board comprising two maindivisions eachv composed of a 4plurality of interchangeable sections andadapted `to be-placed in juxtaposition to form a playing surface, thersections being marked to represent the topography-of a field-of action.

,12. In a. game of the-class]described,aplay ing board composed of aplurality of sections forming 'when assembled a playing surface, said;sections having spots at their corners and in the center to indicate thedirec tion and measure the speed of movements of playing pieces adaptedto be moved over said surface from spot to spot.

3. In a game of the class described, a playing board composed of aplurality of sections forming whenk assembled a playing surface, saidsections having spots at their corners and in the center to indicate thedirection and measure the speed of movements of play-ing pieces adaptedto be moved over said surface from spot to spot, and a plurality ofplaying, pieces adapted to be moved over saidf surface from spotto=spot.V

4. In a game apparatus, the combination of a playing surface, and aplurality of playing pieces movable on said surface having duplicatesets of ch'ara'cters,jeach character of a Set being difierent from othercharactersv inthe same set toV represent diiferent playing values, butidentical with the correspondingcharacter ofA the other set, and adifferent distinctive gener-al marking for each set.

5. .In a game of the class described, the combination, ofV a playingsurface, a plurality-of' playing pieces movable on said surface, andeach having av plurality of faces distinctively marked, ,t'he facesv ofcorrespondingly marked playing faces having a set of characters thereon,andv the corresponding faces of another distinctive mark ing'havingasimilar set of characters, whereby at the itermi-nation lof a play thepiece may be 'turned tovindicate that it has been moved wit-houtchanging 'the relation-ofthe characters.V

6. In ay game of t-he vclass described, the combi-nation Vof" a` playingsurface, and a cube-shaped play-ing piece having three of its faces:arbitrarily marked in 'one manner and Aits 'other three facesdistinctively marked, whereby it :may be turned on the surface to exposea different marking after being moved lonthensurface to indicate that ithas been played. n

7-. In a 4game of` the class described, thek combi-nation of a.support-ing member ar-` rangedin two sections adapted to be'juxtaposedwith respect to each other and having a raised iange-so as to inclose ashallow area of 'the surface of said board,.sai'd flange having aplural-ity of spots on its face adjacent its inner edge; aplurality ofpolygonal shaped interchangeable unit sections ada-ptedto be lassembledso as to con-form to said area 'and fit within theflange to retain saidsections Iin position, and spots in the corners ofsaid'pieces adaptedAwhen saidpieces are positioned adjacent said flange to register with thespots onrsaid flange. A 8. A playing piece for games of the class,

described, comprising a cube-shaped member having three of its facesmarked to distinguish them from the three others faces, the faces havinga double set of arbitrary markings, the markings of each set beingvaried with respect to each other to represent different playingvalues'.

9. A playing piece for games of the class described, comprising acube-shaped member having three of its faces colored differently fromits other three faces, and duplicate sets of arbitrary markings, one setfor the faces of each color, the markings of each set being different oneach face of the corresponding color to represent dierent playingValues.

l0. A playing piece for games of the class described, comprising a cubehaving three of its contiguous faces of one color, and its other threecontiguous faces of another color, and having an arbitrary marking oneach face of one color and a duplicate arbitrary marking on eachcorresponding face of the other color, the markings on each face 0feither color being different from the markings on the other faces of thesame color so as to represent different playing values.

l1. In a game of the character described, the combination of a pluralityof uniform interchangeable iat pieces polygonal in shape arranged to beplaced in juxtaposition to form a playing surface, each piece beingmarked on opposite faces so that the faces may be interchangeably usedto vary the scheme of the playing surface, and each piece having spotsat its corners arranged to register with the spots at the corners ofcontiguous pieces.

12. In a game of the character described, the combination of a pluralityof uniform interchangeable flat pieces polygonal in shape arranged to beplaced in juxtaposition to form a playing surface, and each piece beingmarked on opposite faces so that the faces may be interchangeably usedto vary the scheme of the playing surface, and markings at the cornersand in the center of both faces of said pieces to determine thedirection and speed of movement of playing pieces used on said surface,and a plurality of playing pieces adapted to be moved over said playingsurface from spot to spot.

Signed by me at Chicago, Illinois, this lst day of May, 1915.

MAXIMILIEN MARIS.

Witnesses:

EDWARD DAvIEsoN, ELLEN H. CLEGG.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ive cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

